has described his ministry’s reshuffle as “the biggest” in its history. The reshuffle covers 4,000 police officers according to the minister who stated that the ministry ended the service of 505 major-generals and brigadier-generals and 82 colonels. These include 18 major-generals and 9 brigadier-generals accused of killing protesters.
This minister of interior announced the reshuffle today in a press conference after meeting with Prime Minister Essam Sharaf earlier this morning.
El-Eissawi revealed that 18 police officers accused of killing protesters during the first days of the January 25 uprising were purged from the force. Another 54 police officers accused of killing protesters were reassigned duties that do not require interaction with the public.
During the press conference, El-Eissawi denied rumors that Alaa and Gamal Mubarak had escaped from Tora prison.
He also defended the role of the police in the revolution, claiming that the ministry does not have snipers and that as policemen were already absent from the streets from 28 January they could not have been involved in the shooting of protesters from that date.
The Ministry of Interior is accused of placing snipers on roof tops around Tahrir Square during the uprising to shoot protesters. The ministry denies the allegations.

I will not waste time in responding to the absurd lies of General Essawi re the MOI not having snipers, as Zeinobia has a well written, detailed blog post about the subject that refutes completely such claims.

But let’s go back to the reshuffle move by the MOI. Essawi basically referred to retirement generals who were already about to reach their retirement age in all cases. And most of those officers “forced to retire” will neither be tried nor investigated, which I find completely unacceptable, since the MOI under Mubarak has been the biggest criminal syndicate in this country and those generals are its leaders. Where is justice? Where is the transparency? Why don’t those generals be investigated automatically by the prosecutors publicly to find out about the roles they performed at the ministry. And who are those officers forced to retire? We don’t have all the names.

And more troubling, looking at the list of the senior officers who were kept in the service, I found some familiar names from the Piggipedia:

For example, Khaled Gharaba, the Mahalla torturer, is to head Alexandria’s Security Directorate.

From Piggipedia

General Muhammad Refaat Qomsan has been re-appointed as the Interior Minister’s First Assistant for Administrative Affairs.

From SS Officers

SS General Tarek el-Rakaybi is to replace General Hisham Abu Gheida as the Interior Minister’s First Assistant for Guards and Security Division.

From SS Officers

So what happened to Abu Gheida? I have no idea.

More ludicrously, the Alexandria police murderers including Wael el-Komy, who are undergoing trial for the murder of protesters, have been moved to better paying jobs in other police departments.

This musical chairs game isn’t going to fool the Egyptian people. Protests and sit ins continue and we are expecting a mass turn out in Tahrir today.

Amr L’Assar is a State Security Police general whose photos I found on the Nasr City SS DVDs. I don’t have information about his previous work with SS, but he’s now part of the newly founded National Security Sector’s Public Relations Department.

Police General Magdi Abu Qamar, Beheira’s security director during the uprising, whose troops were involved in the murder of protesters, has been promoted, according to the Nadim Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence.

The infamous SS officer Mohannad Abul Einein (seen above shooting at Damanhour protesters during the uprising) is still a free man too. And I’m trying to confirm whether he’s part of the newly founded National Security Sector.

Khateeb, according to activist sources in Alexandria, was in charge of the youth movements in the province. He’s been personally involved in repeated attacks on socialists, ElBaradei supporters, and demonstrators during the Khaled Said protests and Palestine solidarity events. Khateeb was also part of the officers’ squad which shot at protesters trying to storm Alexandria’s SS headquarters in an attempt to stop the officers from destroying the agency’s documents on 4 March 2011. He was whisked away by the army on that night after protesters showered him with the beatings he pretty much deserved.

Part of the police musical chairs game PM Essam Sharaf‘s cabinet is currently playing, Khateeb still retains his position, under the new banner of the NSS.

Appointed on 14 April 2011 as the governor of Daqahliya, former State Security Police General Mohsen Hafzi has been the target of ongoing protests by the citizens in the province, over his ties to the Mubarak’s regime and the dissolved SS.

It’s no secret General Hafzi was a close aid to Mubarak’s former interior minister, General Habib el-Adly. Though Hafzi reached his retirement age in 2009, he was among those generals who received the annual extension of service, decreed in person by Adly.

Hafzi spent a long years of his career in SS, before he went on to assume senior positions in the ministry’s departments in charge of tourism and business. By 2007, he was already the security director of Giza, and two years later he became the minister’s first assistant for security in both Giza and the 6th of October provinces.

Hafzi’s ties with his SS mentors never ceased for a moment throughout his career. A leaked 2007 SS document, for example, discusses his proposal to install CCTV cameras to spy on Cairo University students. Hafzi is also accused of involvement in the crackdown on, and the murder of, Coptic protesters in Giza’s Omraniya district in November 2010.

Instead of facing justice in a public trial after the revolution, Essam Sharaf‘s cabinet rewarded him with a promotion as a governor. This is another reason why we should be in Tahrir on 27 May.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zANoo4kY0Tw

The National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority NTRA has reshuffled its board, and guess what? Not only did SS General Rushdi el-Qamari keep his post, as the interior ministry’s representative on its board, but also Tarek Kamel, Mubarak’s infamous minister of telecommunication, has joined! You can find both their names on the official website of NTRA.

What kind of sick musical chairs game is going on here? How can the orchestrators of Mubarak’s crackdown on telecommunication during the uprising be rewarded posts in the new revolutionary Egypt?

The government body that orchestrated the blackout was the National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA), headed by the former Telecommunication Minister Tarek Kamel (whose brother Cairo University President Hossam Kamel is currently the target of an impeachment campaign by faculty staff and student protesters over his ties to the Mubarak regime), together with representatives from the police, Mukhabarat and government officials.

From SS Officers

The Interior Ministry’s representative on the board of NTRA during the revolution was General Rushdi el-Qamari, whose profile pictures I found on the Nasr City SS DVDs.

Little I managed to find out about the career of General Rushdi Muhammad Sayyed Ahmad el-Qamari, before he became the head of the General Administration of Police Communications in July 2010. But usually heads of such sensitive departments in the interior ministry come from the ranks of State Security Police, especially as he assumed the membership of the NTRA board, sharing seats with the Mukhabarat.

Essam Sharaf’s cabinet has come out few days ago saying the regime’s shutting down of telecommunications was “inappropriate.” But has anyone been held accountable? What happened to NTRA board members, including General Qamari? Have they been investigated? Do they still keep their posts? Or are we continuing with the musical chairs game?

State Security Police General Tarek Mahmoud el-Rakaybi, whom I blogged about previously, has not gone on trial. In fact, according to police sources, he remains the head of the General Police Directorate of Private Guards.

From SS Officers

Moreover, SS General Muhammad Abul Wafa whose picture seen above was among those I found on the SS Nasr City DVDs, has been moved from the dissolved agency, according to the police sources, to become el-Rakaybi’s deputy in the General Police Directorate of Private Guards.

From SS Officers

The same police sources also confirmed what was reported previously about SS General Hisham Abdel Fattah Abu Gheida, the last director of State Security Police, becoming the Interior Minister’s Assistant for Guards and Security Division. His son, Tarek, also a police officer, has been assigned a “very well paying job” in the police division in charge of the security of the Arab League, and was given a private car by the interior ministry–something unprecedented for officers in that division, added the sources.

The police musical chairs game continues.

In other words, former rapists, murderers, torturers and sadists will continue to be employed by the police. And the remaining 25% of SS will be part of the newly formed National Security Sector.

The police musical chairs game continues.